


Of Pink Carnations and Silver Moon

by orphan_account



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: F/M, Fantasy AU, Hiroko is the best mother, M/M, Mari is an amazing sister, Other, description of animal attack, it can be mild or graphic depending on personal opinion, mentions of feelings of depression and low self-worth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-17
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2019-02-03 16:18:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12751809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: At five, Yuuri decided that he loved his mother with all his heart.At twelve, he decided that now that his heart was a little larger, there was perhaps enough space to fit in a certain Russian figure skater inside as well.At seventeen, he decided that his mother’s paranoia about not wandering around outside the house at night was baseless, and no way he was going to back down from Takeshi’s challenge to go exploring the forest at night.~Written for YOI Fantasy Week Day 5: Pink | Unicorn | Carnation | Love | Silver | Werewolf | Moon | Cunning





	Of Pink Carnations and Silver Moon

**Author's Note:**

> This work is unbetaed. Sorry for the typos! I'll probably edit this later in the morning. Feel free to point out any errors in the comments. Thank you!
> 
> Friendly reminder to people who didn't read the tags that there will be mentions of animal attacks in this fiction! It's not terribly graphic but I don't want to trigger bad memories for anyone.

_"Stay close to the herd. Stay away from humans. Don’t wander around alone at night."_

Those were the words the unicorn’s mother repeated multiple times a day from the moment it was born. Nevertheless, a new scent was riding high in the cold night air and the unicorn _needed_ to know what it was and where it came from. Thus armed with an undying yearning for knowledge and the reckless courage of youth, the unicorn stepped away from the rest of the sleeping herd in search of the source of the smell.

The answer came in the form of large pink flowers blooming all over a mountain face and two hunters lying in ambush.

The unicorn had bolted immediately, galloping away into the safety of the forest. The hunters gave chase immediately, not about to let the treasure slip away so easily. The trees rustled, warning of traps and dangers ahead, though the unicorn in its haste and panic heard not a word. Mere minutes later, the unicorn found itself helplessly trapped in a net that the hunters had set up in advance. It struggled to get free, only to it limbs being entangled further in the net. The sound of approaching footsteps foretold its impending doom. The unicorn whinnied for its mother, terrified.

 _Unicorn, run. Run away_ , the trees whispered, leaves rustling in desperation. _The hunter draws close, unicorn. Run._

How the unicorn wished it could run but its limbs were so entangled now that it couldn't even straighten them into a standing position.

_Your horn. Use your horn. Cut the net, unicorn._

The unicorn would love to do so, except that the net was made of millions of Red Threads and it was wont to destroying the fates of so many. The footsteps were louder now. The hunter was alone, though from the stories told by its elders, the unicorn knew that one man was more than enough to commit mass destruction beyond one's wildest imaginations. The unicorn let out a panicked neigh, a final desperate cry for help.

The trees wept tears of leaves and flowers, unable to be of help. Tiny nocturnal critters peeped out from the sanctuary of their burrows and hiding holes, 

The hunter came into view at the same time, a smallish man who wore large round glasses in front of his eyes. The unicorn tried to back away, though its limbs were too entangled for it to move far without risking breaking the threads.

The man unsheathed a large hunting knife and crouched down before it, putting them both at eye level.

“My name is Katsuki Toshiya. I thought you should know the name of the one who killed you.”

 

* * *

 

Yuuri’s mother was the prettiest woman on earth. Yuuri was sure of this with unwavering conviction. Wherever she went, flowers bloomed, birds sang and animals danced. Even after an extremely busy day running the _onsen_ , she would still look bright and spruce at the end of the day, welcoming her children home with a wide smile, a warm hug and lots of merry laughter that sounded like a dozen bells chiming. Most importantly, when Yuuri was frightened of being alone at night, she would hold his hand and stay with him in his room until he fell asleep, and her mere presence would cause the entire room to be lit up in a soft, silver glow — bright enough to keep the scary darkness at bay yet dim enough that it didn’t keep him awake.

At five, Yuuri decided that he loved his mother with all his heart.

At twelve, he decided that now that his heart was a little larger, there was perhaps enough space to fit in a certain Russian figure skater inside as well.

At seventeen, he decided that his mother’s paranoia about not wandering around outside the house at night was baseless, and no way he was going to back down from Takeshi’s challenge to go exploring the forest at night.

It all started with a stupid rumour. A group of kids from Yuuri’s school had decided to spend the night camping in the mountain forest surrounding Hasetsu. When they got back the next day, all of them insisted on having caught sight of a unicorn frolicking next to a field of carnations during the night. The news had spread like wild fire and within days, it was all the entire school was talking about.

“Hogwash,” Yuuri had declared of the rumour as soon as he heard it. “Everyone knows that unicorns were hunted to extinction decades ago for the medicinal property of their horns.”

He would know. After all, Yuuri's father used to be a unicorn hunter in his younger days. When he was thirteen, he had stopped, overwhelmed with the guilt of killing such innocent creatures. By then, it was already too late. Reportedly, his father was responsible for the death of the last unicorn. It was something that the man felt bad about to this day, so much so that he had vowed to be vegan for the rest of his life - a sentiment Yuuri was secretly relieved he did not force upon his children.

“Well, are you man enough to go find out the truth for yourself with me?” Takeshi had challenged.

There was no way Yuuri was going to admit to Takeshi that he can’t because his mother would never agree to letting her son prance about the wilderness at night. 

"I'm game if you are," Yuuri bluffed, praying desperately that Takeshi would just laugh it off.

Yuuri knew that he was screwed the moment Takeshi's face widened into a broad grin. His only consolation was in the knowledge that his parents sometimes left the onsen to go to the forest at night and they always came back safe and sound the next day, so it really can't be as dangerous as what his mother made it out to be.

“ _Tadaima_ ,” Yuuri called out upon reaching home, announcing his presence with his usual greeting.

“ _Okaeri_ , Yuuri!” His mother bounded out of the onsen and welcomed him home with her usual jovial self. “How was your day?”

It wasn't fair. Even now, after spending a day scrubbing and cleaning and cooking and goodness knows what else, her hair was still silky smooth instead of oily and greasy, her face glowed with radiance and the hands that held his were soft as a newborn baby's. On the other end, Yuuri's hair was a sweaty mess, his feet hard and calloused from hours of ballet and skating and his entire body reeked of the chemicals from his school's laboratory. 

“It was great,” he said, the lack of his usual enthusiasm deafening in its absence. A ball of guilt rested heavily in his gut at the thought of what he was about to do.

“Come in. Tonight will be your favourite _katsudon_ ,” said Hiroko as she ushered her son into the kitchen. It was strange, how she cooked meat dishes for her children and the guests of the onsen without complaint even though she herself was a vegan like his father. Stranger still, despite having never tasted her own cooking, she still made the best pork cutlet bowl in town.

“Don’t forget to wash your hands,” called Mari from where she sat at the reception. It was one of the rare days when she was home. Over the past couple of years, more often than not she was travelling somewhere abroad, helping investigate claims of attacks by beasts and other magical creatures and, if the claims turned out to be true, hunt and kill the prepetrator. Their father had been vocal about his displeasure at her choice of occupation, though their mother had defended her, insisting that if her goal was to keep humans safe, it was a noble intention.

Rarely at home or not, Yuuri would normally reply his only sister with some snarky comment. Most commonly that was to tell her to stop being a grandmother. Today, though, he didn’t have it in him to be cheeky at her, too preoccupied with what he was about to do. Mari and his mother exchanged a glance. As if coming to some consensual agreement, Mari got up and headed off to the back of the inn, muttering something about needing to check to see if there were enough clean towels for the guests.

“So, Yuuri, what’s bothering you?” asked his mother. There was a gentleness in her voice and concern in her eyes that had always put Yuuri at ease since he was a toddler, crying when he fell down after running around recklessly. That day, it only served to amplify the Yuuri's guilt.

Yuuri swallowed the lump that had formed and solidified in his throat. “Umm… Mum. I… We…” He looked away at the _maneki-neko_  sitting on the reception counter, its hand bobbing up and down as it welcomed luck or fortune or whatever positive thing it was that the cat liked to welcome. He wondered if it was also bidding goodbye to the trash that was his lying ass. He took a deep breath. “Remember the project that Takeshi and I were working on?”

“Of course I remember! The two of you spent ages working on it,” chirped his mother fondly. “What of it?”

“Well, it was an accident, really, but… Like, you know, you remember Takeshi’s little brother? He… sort of… Well, he broke the model and the deadline for the project is tomorrow so I really need to stay over at Takeshi’s to work on creating a new piece if we want to finish this in time.” The last sentence came out in a rush with all the words glued together. His face burned from the lie.

If his mother didn’t hear it the first time, he’s going to come clean and confess that he lied, Yuuri vows to himself.

His mother, however, understood every single word of his garbled sentence the way only a mother could. She looked horrified.

“Oh no. That’s terrible! Sure, you can stay over at his place. Unless he wants to come over. We always have room for guests,” said Hiroko, resting one hand on his back in a way that was meant to be comforting, having mistaken his guilt for lying to her as distress over his ruined project.

Yuuri’s eyes stung. He truly did not deserve his mother.

“It’s okay, mum.” Yuuri blinked, trying to keep his tears at bay. “We… It'll cause too much noise. Takeshi said that we... I mean, we thought that that might disturb the guests. And anyway most of the stuff are at Takeshi’s place anyway and it would be troublesome to move them over here.”

It was a lie that Yuuri had rehearsed in his head for hours before coming home.

“I understand. When are you going over? Do you need me to get you anything?” His mother looked genuinely concerned.

“Thanks, mum, but I can manage on my own, really,” said Yuuri. “I… I really should go pack my stuff now.” _Before I break down and confess everything and cry for being such an idiot._

“Now? But you just got home! At least have dinner first!”

Yuuri really wouldn’t last that long. He's already on the verge of throwing himself at his mother's feet and begging for mercy as it is. Maybe it's a better idea to just confess and call the entire thing off with Takeshi. It was much better than needing to live with the guilt of having broken his mother's unquestioning trust in him.

“Mum, I'm s…”

Hiroko raised both hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, I understand how you are. Every second matters and you aren't satisfied until you gave it your best shot, right?” She smiled at him. “Don’t worry. That's the spirit that has always made me so proud of you and I'm not going to change my mind now. I’ll pack your food up for you. There will be extra to share with Takeshi as well. You go to your room and pack whatever you need, alright?” With that, his mother shooed him upstairs.

Yuuri ascended the stairs step by step in a trance-like state, amazed at how easy the lie was. He wasn't quite sure if he felt elated at his success or devastated that he got away with his crime.

“And Yuuri?” his mother called suddenly.

Yuuri froze, convinced that he was about to be called out on his lie. “Y-yes, mother?”

“Remember that I’m here for you if you need me, okay? Call if you need anything.”

Yuuri's mother was the most understanding woman in the world and he did not do anything to deserve her.

 ~

 As things turned out, the rumour was exactly that — a rumour. Now, he was stuck on the mountainside in the freezing night with a hungry stomach and a heart weighed down with guilt. Was this what his father felt every time after he killed a unicorn? No wonder he stopped. Yuuri wasn't sure how he was going to last a night in this messed up state. When his stomach rumbled for the umpteenth time that night, complaining of being deprived of the _katsudon_ that Yuuri insisted Takeshi share with Yuuko because he didn’t have the stomach at that time to accept his mother’s kindness after blatantly lying to her straight in the face, Yuuri swore to never lie to his mother again.

“See? Told you that Kitoru guy was lying,” grumbled Takeshi his hiding spot in the bush between Yuuri and Yuuko.

Yuuri didn't point out that the entire stupid expedition was his idea in the first place.

“Hush. You’ll scare the unicorn away,” chided Yuuko, ever the optimist. By the faint glow of the full moon, Yuuri could tell that her face was red from the cold, though one wouldn't be able to tell from how calm she appeared, unlike the two boys, who had been fidgeting and rubbing their hands together for warmth as soon as the sun had set.

“What? You’re the one who’s loud enough to wake the dead!” Takeshi countered.

Yuuko's eyes flashed with irritation and just like that, Yuuri _knew_ that the rest of the night would be spent with the two embroiled in a never ending gunfire match to the death. He buried his head in his hands, convinced that he would die as a casualty of war and never live to see daylight. It’s probably not a bad idea since he’s pretty much convinced that he’s the worst human being ever right now and even if a stray bullet didn’t kill him during the night, the guilt gnawing in his heart would. Or maybe the judge when he stood for trial would sentence him to death by the gallows. On the more practical side of things, he was starting to feel a little lightheaded, probably from a combination of hunger and cold and it’s known that one could legitly die from hypoglycaemia and hypothermia.

“Will you two just shut up?” he hissed. His stomach chose that moment to let out a deafening rumble, drowning out his words.

“Shut up, Yuuri,” said Takeshi the same time Yuuko asked, “What’s that?”

The two glared at each other. Yuuri sighed and gave up. He stood up.

“Where are you going?” Takeshi whispered, grabbing onto the first article of clothing of Yuuri's that he could reach. 

Yuuri wasn't sure why he bothered trying, considering he was so loud that his voice echoed through the forest.

“Home,” declared Yuuri. "I'm going home."

There was a moment of blessed silence when the two boys stared each other down.

“What? Too chicken to stay the night?” Takeshi taunted.

At another time and place, Yuuri might have taken the bait. Right then, he was simply too tired, too cold and too hungry to care. 

“I wish. If I was a chicken, I could probably eat myself and fill my own stomach. How wonderful,” Yuuri replied dryly. His eyes wondered over the wild carnations and briefly, he contemplated picking a few he left. Pink carnations were his mother’s favourite. If he was going to beg for forgiveness, he should at least bring something with him as a show of sincerity.

Takeshi gaped at him wordlessly while Yuuko laughed into her hands in a futile attempt to muffle her laughter. Yuuri wasn’t sure if she wasn’t laughing at what he said as much as she was at Takeshi’s speechless look.

“Told you you should have eaten something!” said Yuuko, wiping off her tears once she recovered. She stuck a hand into her bag. “Come down here. I have some energy bars in my bag somewher- Ouch!” Yuuko yanked her hand out of her bag instantly and sucked on a finger.

Takeshi was leaning over her at once, their previous squabble forgotten, lines of worry drawn across his face. “What is it? Did you hurt yourself?” he asked in a way that was reminiscent of Yuuri's father dotting on his mother.

“It’s nothing. I think I cut myself on something,” mumbled Yuuko.

“Come, let me see." Takeshi slowly coaxed Yuuko to release her finger and inspected the wound.

“I… I might have a plaster in my bag somewhere,” volunteered Yuuri, feeling awfully like a third wheel. He probably should have kept silent instead of sticking his foot in but Yuuri could never see someone get hurt and remain silent.

Takeshi spun around to look at him. “Wh-”

What he wanted to ask, Yuuri would never find out because right then, the rest of his words were drowned out by the sound of a blood-curdling howl.

There was a moment’s silence, then—

“I thought you said there aren’t any wolves in this area?” Yuuko asked in a whisper. Yuuri could see the whites of her eyes from where he was standing beside Takeshi.

“There wasn’t supposed to be! Didn’t you pay attention during Geography?” asked Takeshi, though the tremour in his voice belied his fear.

“I don’t take Geography!” retorted Yuuko.

“You two, shut up!” snapped Yuuri just as another howl was heard, this time sounding much closer. “We need a plan. What do we do now? Hide?”

“Wolves can smell blood,” Yuuko pointed out helpfully. She looked sick with fear. "We can't hide from wolves."

Yuuri casted his eyes about, trying to locate the source of the sound. Despite the silver glow of the full moon, the forest was really too dark to make anything out. There was a moment of madness when Yuuri contemplated heading out of the cover of the forest onto the carnation field, if only so they could minimise the risk of an ambush, only he wasn’t sure if they had been scented or not and if they weren’t, walking out into the open right now would sign their death warrant because no way they could outrun a pack of wolves.

“Let’s climb a tree,” suggested Takeshi. He looked around, probably trying to identify a tree that was easy enough to climb for humans but tall enough to be out of a wolf’s reach. “That one, over there. Here, Yuuko, get onto my shoulders. I’ll help you get up.”

Yuuri stood watch, fidgeting nervously as another howl was heard. Yuuko scrambled onto Takeshi’s shoulder, the two of them not arguing for once. She grabbed onto a branch.

Suddenly, Yuuri heard a low growl coming from somewhere deeper within the forest, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand. He turned around. Two amber eyes stared back from the shadows between two trees.

“Shit.”

Yuuri wasn’t sure who was the one who swore. It could have been any one of the three of them, really. At that moment, though, all his mind could think of was, ‘ _Run! Run for your life! Get the hell away from here!_ ’ while he remained rooted to the spot, muscles were paralysed with fear.

The wolf took another step forwards, exiting the shadows of the forest that veiled it. Yuuri felt like someone just upended a bucket of ice over him. The monster was a wolf, except that it wasn’t. It was eight foot tall, stood on two legs, and had what looked like remnants of shredded clothings hanging off its body. Dimly, Yuuri remembered his father showing him a drawing of a werewolf once when he was a kid.

Takeshi swore. Yuuko screamed. The sound broke Yuuri out of his stupour and set his heart racing at a hundred miles per hour. At the same time, the werewolf howled and lunged forwards.

Before he could think twice about what he was about to do, Yuuri grabbed a bag — whose bag it was, he would never know — from the ground and flung it at the werewolf. It struck the wolf squarely in the face, sending it off trajectory and crashing into a nearby tree.

“Takeshi, keep Yuuko safe!” Yuuko shouted and immediately darted off towards the carnation field without waiting for a response.

The werewolf let out a howl of fury and bounded after him.

Despite his head start, Yuuri was quickly reminded of the fact that there was only so much adrenaline can compensate for when your muscles are deprived of the fastest and most convenient source of energy when the werewolf quickly caught up to him in a couple of paces. He glanced back in time to see the werewolf flexed the muscles of its hind legs in preparation for a jump. Yuuri threw himself off to the side at the last second, narrowly avoiding the werewolf’s aim for his throat. Then, his shoulder struck the earth and he started rolling down the steep mountainside. The world swept past in a confusion of flower, earth and sky. For a moment, the only thought that filled his mind was the fear of death from rolling off a cliff.

Then, he felt something heavy pounding onto him, crushing his chest and aborting his roll downwards. He lashed out instinctively, bringing his legs up to kick the monster off the same time the wolf clamped its jaws around his hand. Pain exploded in Yuuri's hand. All the neurons in his brain screamed out in pain, demanding for the source of the pain to be removed at once.

The loud sound of a gun being fired resounded through the night. Instantly,the weight above him went slack and the monster rolled off him. Yuuri’s mind fuzzily acknowledged the sound of another three shots being fired in rapid succession. The crickets resumed singing in the ensuing silence. Footsteps approached him. Yuuri saw a pair of familiar boots enter his line of vision. His rescuer dropped into a crouch and rolled him over. Instantly, he was greeted with the sight of his sister’s face looming over his.

"Mari?" he croaked, before darkness enveloped him.

The last thing he remembered was hearing the sound of his sister swearing loudly.

~

When Yuuri came to, it took him a while to recognise the unfamiliar pattern over his head. Then, he remembered. It was the ceiling of Takeshi’s room. For a heartbeat, he felt relief wash over his body. It was only a nightmare. He was working on a project with Takeshi and fell asleep in his friend's room. They never went out into the forest. They never encountered a werewolf. He never got bitten. Yuuri rolled over and wriggled his fingers and toes. His body felt a little sore from sleeping on a lumpy mattress, his head was still fuzzy from sleep and he felt a little nauseous from not eating for nearly an entire day but otherwise there was none of the pain that should come with having endured an attack from a werewolf. He got into a sitting position.

And found himself staring right into his sister’s ashen face. There was splatters of mud and dirt and grime all over her face, as if she had spent the night roaming around the forest and hadn't bothered to wash up.

“Mari _nee-san_! Wha—”

Before Yuuri could continue further, Mari grabbed his arm and unwound the blood-soaked bandage on his forearm. The skin under the bandage was smooth without the faintest trace of any injuries. If anything, Mari’s face only turned paler. Yuuri could feel the slight tremour in the hand holding his.

“Shit, Yuuri. What have you done?” she exhaled.

Then, the truth came crashing down on Yuuri. Last night really happened. They did sneak out into the forest at night. Meeting the werewolf was real. Being bitten was real. Which meant that Yuuri was now-

This time, Yuuri was really sick. He threw up over Takeshi’s floor, except there wasn't much left in him to throw up and he ended up dry heaving long after there was nothing left in him. A hundred questions flooded his mind. How long was he out? What happened to Takeshi and Yuuko? Why was his sister there last night? Why wasn’t he wounded?

At some point, he became aware of Mari holding him, gently rubbing circles into his shoulder blades. He heard the door opening. Yuuko and Takeshi’s voice drifted in, asking after Yuuri. Mari muttered something in reply asked for something warm to drink and ordered them to leave.

“What the hell were you thinking, Yuuri? Didn’t mother always tell us to stay indoors at night?” Mari swore, though there wasn’t any vitriol in her words. If anything, she sounded more dejected than angry. “Shit, Yuuri. How am I going to explain to mother and father?”

“I’m sorry, Mari! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have lied. If I didn’t, none of this would have happened. We wouldn’t have ran into that werewolf. I wouldn’t have gotten b-”

A sharp pain on his left cheek snapped him out of his hysterical state.

“Don’t say that,” hissed Mari, shaking with unconcealed rage. “Don’t you ever dare utter that. You were never injured that night, you understand? I managed to kill that beast before it got to you. Do you understand? People are going to ask questions. This is the story we will give them. We will get through this together, you understand? We’ll go talk to Minako-sensei first chance we have. Mother and father must not learn of this.”

“But Mari _nee-san_. What if-” _What if I’m a werewolf now?_ Yuuri trailed off, unable to bring himself to finish the sentence. He bit his lips and glanced at the floor, hating himself for his own cowardice.

“Let me worry about that, kid. Now shush, I can hear people coming.”

It was Takeshi’s mother returning with Takeshi and Yuuko with some broth for Yuuri and a mop and bucket to clean up Yuuri’s mess. Mari insisted on helping and managed to get the family to leave by telling them that Yuuri was still in shock from the night before and needed some peace and quiet. Yuuri felt bad about making Mari clean up for him but she had pointed one finger at him and commanded him to eat and after that there was no arguing with her.

As soon as he was well enough to walk, Mari brought him home. She left immediately after that and did not return until late evening, reeking of alcohol.

“Minako- _sensei_ has a cure. It only works if administered before a Werewolf’s first Turning. Once someone had Turned, it will only help to maintain the Werewolf’s sanity when Turned,” said Mari. She sounded exhausted.

Yuuri felt a spark of hope flutter in his chest. He hadn't Turned yet. If he took the remedy now, he could be cured of lycantropy and no one would be any wiser. There was no need to put him down like a rabid dog.

“But the recipe needs the horn of a unicorn.”

Yuuri felt all hope rush out of him, rivulets of water whooshing out from between his fingers as soon as he closed his fist around it. The flood gates opened and for the first time after the traumatic night, Yuuri cried. It was as if he had been living in a state of suspended shock the entire day and all the fear, worry and guilt pent up within him chose that second to break free at once.

Mari hugged him. “Don’t worry, Yuuri. We’ll find another way. Minako- _sensei_ is not the only witch in town.” She sounded fiercely determined, like a ferocious tigress guarding over her precious tiger cub.

Over the next few days, they spent hours pouring over the ancient archives in the libraries, looking for a cure for lycantropy to no avail; at night, Mari held Yuuri as he quivered in the corner of his room, wondering if that night would be the night he turned for the first time. As predicted, people started asking questions. However, Mari and Yuuri held on to their story that Yuuri was saved before he got injured. Soon, people were patting Mari on her back and thanking her for ridding their community of a deadly monster. Yuuri felt his gut clench at their words. Deadly monster. That's what he would turn into, if they couldn't find an alternative remedy in time.

If their parents heard stories of the werewolf attack, if they suspected anything was amiss with their two children, they said nothing of it. 

At last, the dreaded day came. Yuuri was in tears — they had exhausted the entire library and found only the potion that Minako had alluded to.

“You have to kill me, Mari,” begged Yuuri. “Please. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt anyone. Let me die as Yuuri, not a werewolf.”

“No,” said Mari grimly. “There’s still hope. We still haven’t searched the libraries in Kyoto. Hasetsu is such a small place. I won’t be surprised if Kyoto has books that we don’t. We can-”

Yuuri shook his head. “This isn’t going to work, Mari. None of this is going to work. Can’t you see? I would have killed you long before you can get to Kyoto. Please. This is the only way.”

Mari grabbed his shoulders and shook him. “No,” she repeated. “Do you think a cure is the only thing I’ve been researching? Do you think killing with guns is the only thing I've learnt from being a hunter? Werewolves can be restrained with a silver chain. I will keep you tied up tonight and stay with you the entire night to make sure that nothing happens. Tomorrow, we'll go to Kyoto together.”

It was a foolish idea and Yuuri should never have allowed himself to believe in his sister. But he was a coward and he wanted nothing more than to leave everything in his sister's hands. The next morning, he found himself chained up in an underground basement in the onsen that he did not know existed. He found out from his father that he had broken free from the silver chain that Mari had procured and injured her badly when the Werewolf in him flung her out of his bedroom window. She was being treated in the intensive care unit and it wasn’t sure if she would survive the ordeal.

"She wasn't bitten," his father had assured him grimly.

His mother had cried for hours.

“Why didn’t you tell me? I could have helped you. I would have helped you.” She dried her tears. “Don’t worry. Things will be okay. Do you trust me?”

“But how?” cried Yuuri. “I can’t risk hurting you or father or anyone else!”

“Just trust me.”

Yuuri shrank into the corner of the cell and refused to let anyone get near him. No matter how hard his parents pleaded with him, he refused to leave the cellar and insisted to be kept locked up in silver chains. The silver drained him of energy, leaving him with barely enough strength to breathe, but it was preferable over him injuring anyone else. Later that night, he heard his parents arguing over the matter in the onsen above the cellar.

“We’re not doing this, Hiroko!” shouted his father. "I won't do this! I swore I won't do this ever again!"

“Toshiya, see reason! He’s our son! What can be more important than the life of our son?”

 _Everything_ , thought Yuuri sadly. _Everything is more important than me. My life is worth nothing._

One week later, his mother came to him in the basement with a potion contained in a glass flask.

“Drink this,” she said. For the first time in his life, she looked pale and worn out, as if the stress of the past week had drained her of all her vitality.

Yuuri stared at the potion in her hand. It gave off a faint silver glow.

“Where did you get that, mother?” he asked, feeling sick to the core.

“Don’t ask. Just drink this,” she repeated grimly.

Yuuri stared at the potion. A unicorn’s horn. Somehow, his parents had found a unicorn. The rumours were true. There _was_ a unicorn living in the mountain forest near Hasetsu. Not only that. His parents had killed it and used its horn to make a cure for him. Yuuri wasn’t sure if his life was worth more that of a unicorn.

“Please, you need to drink this. Don’t let all of this go to waste.” His mother sounded on the verge of tears.

“Just drink it, Yuuri,” said his father gruffly. He sounded defeated.

Yuuri took the potion and drank it. It had a sweet, minty taste to it, as well as something he couldn’t quite describe. When he was done, Hiroko smiled at him and helped him up.

“Come. We’ll celebrate with katsudon. Tonight, I can spend the night sleeping in your room like we used to do.”

Yuuri balked at the idea. “No, I can’t, mum. What if-”

“There’s no what if’s, Yuuri. The potion will work. Even if you don’t trust us, at least have some faith in Minako- _sensei_ ,” said his mother.

Yuuri stared helplessly at his father, pleading with his father. His father merely shook his head sorrowfully.

“Please? Tonight will be our the last night together for a long time. Tomorrow, we will be sending you off to a family friend in Detroit. The public had caught wind of what happened. We can't keep the people away forever. Any time now, the police will be here and you need to be gone before that happens. We need to keep you safe. Don’t put all of our efforts to waste.”

That night, as Yuuri stared into the darkness of his room, he felt dead on the inside. He would kill himself, except he was too much of a coward to do so. And anyway, wouldn’t that mean a unicorn just died for nothing?

The next day, he was sent to the airport without a chance to bid Mari goodbye. His only comfort was in knowing that she was no longer in critical condition and had been transferred out to the general wards. Vicchan, which had stayed away from Yuuri from the day he returned from the mountain forest, had growled at him when he tried to approach it for a last pet. Yuuri felt himself die a little more on the inside. Even his pet knew him for the monster that he was.

In Detroit, Celestino had given him a once over before pushing a pair of skates in his hands. “If you truly appreciate the sacrifices that everyone made for you, live. Live to the fullest. Show them it wasn’t a waste. Show the world Katsuki Yuuri deserves to live.”

Over the following years, Yuuri threw his heart and soul into skating. Slowly, he started making a name for himself. Before long, he started winning in international events. Five years later, he finally made it to the Grand Prix Final. The night before his free skate, his sister called.

“Yuuri, I have a good news for you and a bad news,” she said. And because she was Mari and Mari never gave anyone a chance to choose, she said, “The good news is, we think the ruckus has finally blown over. You’re being celebrated as a hero now in Hasetsu. No one believes that a werewolf could be winning consistently and making Japan proud.”

“Oh. Um. Okay.” Yuuri wasn’t sure how he felt about the news. He really was still a monster. One who could think and act rationally every time he Turned, but a monster that would be hunted and persecuted nonetheless if anyone ever found out the truth.

“Which means you can probably come home after this.”

Well, that was certainly good news. He missed home terribly. As much as he loved his roommate Phichit and his coach Celestino, there really was no place like home.

“Now, the bad news. Yuuri, I’m sorry.”

Yuuri stared at his phone long after his sister had hung up. In the end, he never got to be reconciled with his pet poodle.

The next day, Yuuri’s entire world shattered in ways beyond imagination. Deprived of skating, there really was no reason for him to continue living. He went back to Hasetsu, feeling like a moving corpse. That was, until Victor sailed right into his life and opened his eyes to the rest of the world that he had kept himself locked away from.

When he had first let Victor in on his secret, he had expected rejection. Instead, Victor had given him an unimpressed look and said, “What? So are you telling me that you’re worried that I’ll love you less once I've discovered that your wolf form is much hotter than your human form?”

There was really only one answer to that question.

"But you don't know that, do you? You don't know how sexy my human form can get."

His face burned with shame as soon as the words left his mouth. Victor whistled.

"Wow. Is that an invitation for me to find out? I've been wondering when you'll let me see your true _eros_."

"NO!"

Makkachin was a huge fan of his wolf form.

“Let’s sleep together tonight, Yuuri!” announced Victor one day, after Yuuri won gold in Worlds.

Yuuri had blushed and spluttered and fretted about it all day, until he discovered that all Victor wanted to do was go over albums of his baby photos together. Yuuri was simultaneously mortified that his mother had dug those up for Victor and mollified by how much Victor was cooing over every one of his photos. It took him a while to realise that he could see all of the photos with stark clarity even though the curtains to his windows were drawn and the lights were turned off.

“Um… Victor?”

Victor propped his chin on one hand and turned to look at him. “Yes, Yuuri?” There was a glint in his eyes that suggested that the entire thing had been orchestrated for specifically to lead Yuuri to ask the question he was about to ask.

"What are you?"

 ~

 “Ooh, these carnations are lovely,” exclaimed his mother when Yuuri entered the house, freezing from the morning chill.

Yuuri blushed around the bouquet of bright red carnations. He had always known that carnations were his mother’s favourite, though after his ‘accident’ in the carnation field, they no longer had any around in the house.

“They are. Victor bought them for me. Said something about first anniversary flowers.”

His mother beamed. “Has it been a year already? The place was covered in snow when he first came, too. Funny it’s snowed again last night.” She jabbed a finger in his chest. “Vicchan is a good boy. Don’t you dare break his heart.”

“What? Mum! You’re supposed to give the shovel talk to _him_ , not me!”

His mother crossed her arms. “I trust him. You, however, are a different story.”

“Mum!”

His mother laughed. “Go out and help your fiance shovel the snow!”

Yuuri joined in the laughter. After a while, he sobered. “Speaking of shovels. Mum, I’d like to show you something.”

Gently, he reached out and held his mother’s hands, feeling the hard callouses in them from working tirelessly all day and night at the onsen. He steered her towards the door, studying the number of grey hair that she had accumulated over the years that he had spent away from home, the crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes. He wondered if she would get wrinkles too, one day, and it made his heart heavy knowing it was all for him.

“Wow. It’s beautiful!” his mother exclaimed.

Pots of carnations lined up on both sides of the onsen’s front lawn, the pink of the blossoms standing out against the pale white of the snow-covered landscape.

“We spent the entire night shoveling these up from the mountains. Apparently the soil around here aren't conducive for growing carnations so if we want to plant them here, we need to keep them in flower pots,” said Yuuri. He pulled her into a hug. “These are for you, mum. Thank you. Thank you for everything.”

There was a moment’s pause. Then, a sigh.

“Vicchan promised not to tell,” said Hiroko accusingly, blinking away tears.

“Good morning, momma Katsuki!” sang Victor at that very moment, showing up with an actual shovel. He wrapped his arms around Yuuri’s shoulders from behind and proceeded to wave the shovel about as he spoke. “No, I didn’t tell him. I can never betray my own. Unfortunately, Yuuri’s smart enough to make the connections himself. It’s really not my fault you have such a smart son.”

“And it’s not my fault you are the best mother in the world,” said Yuuri.

His mother wiped her tears on the back of her hands and snatched the shovel from Victor's hand, smacking him playfully on the head.

“You cunning boy! And here I was just telling Yuuri what a good boy you are and there you go breaking my trust. What is a woman supposed to do?”

“How about you welcome me into your family as your son-in-law?” asked Victor.

“VICTOR!”

 

* * *

  

“My name is Katsuki Toshiya. I’m sorry, but I need your horn to help save someone important,” said the man. The blade of the knife in his hands glinted, deadly sharp from years of being sharpened over and over again.

The unicorn whinnied in distress, afraid for its life.

The man stared at it for a long while, an unreadable look in his eyes. Suddenly, the man cut through the net that was holding it captive. The unicorn stared at the man, unable to comprehend its actions.

“Don’t worry. These are just threads we dyed with a special red dye. We aren't actually destroying anyone's _red threads of fate_ here.”

Another set of footsteps approached them. The man sped up his actions and yanked the net away from the unicorn.

“What are you waiting for?" he demanded when the unicorn made no move to leave. "Run! Run and never come back!”

The unicorn did not wait to be told twice. Instantly, it was on its feet, galloping away from the other hunter at breakneck speed.

“Where is it?” The unicorn heard a rough voice addressing its saviour.

“It got free. Bastard cut through the threads with its horn. The dye doesn’t work. We’ve been cheated,” lied Toshiya.

There was the sound of a punch.

“You big fat liar. You think we would fall that nonsense? Five generations we’ve been hunting unicorns and today, you let one go when the Emperor is on his death bed? Do you know the riches we’ve just missed?”

The unicorn kept on running.

 ~

The carnations continued to bloom on the mountainside, though the human hunter never returned. Over the years, the rest of the herd moved elsewhere. Some took the forms of humans and blended into the human community, some hid within unexplored mountains, some left in search of safer lands in the far south where it was too cold for humans to live. At last, the unicorn was the only one who remained in the mountain forest of Hasetsu, wondering if the human hunter who saved it would return one day.

When humans started settling in the area nearby, she took on the form of a human girl, lest she be captured and killed. Slowly, she started learning the ways of the humans. They were mostly a peaceful sort, she realised, as the human settlers thrived in the harsh conditions by helping one another. Nevertheless, she kept to herself in the forest, mindful of her mother's warning to keep away from humans.

One day, ten years after she narrowly escaped death, she met Toshiya again on the mountain where carnations now grew in abundance.

“I told you to never come back,” said Toshiya as soon as she appeared. “Why did you come back?” Over the years, his voice had deepened, body taller, shoulders broader but there was no mistaking him for who he was.

“How do you know it’s me?” asked the unicorn, now appearing as a human girl with dark brown hair that fell to her waist.

“Your kind has a distinct scent that one can never forget,” came the reply. “But you haven’t quite answered my question. Why did you come back?”

“I’m waiting for you.” Could there be any other reason?

“Why? Aren’t you afraid that I will kill you?” asked Toshiya.

The question was absurd. 

“You could have killed me ten years ago. You didn’t,” she pointed out.

Toshiya laughed bitterly, though the unicorn could tell that the anger and hatred was directed inwards at himself. “Don’t you think I would regret it? Every single day my father and I spent in prison, I wondered what life would be like if I had killed you that night. My father… He died in prison. And it’s all my fault.” Here, the unicorn had learnt, was where humans normally started shedding tears, except that Toshiya remained perfectly dry-eyed, though the slight tremor in his voice betrayed his emotions. Later, she would learn about how some people saw tears as a weakness and tried to abstain from doing so in front of others.

“I’m sorry,” she said, because that’s what you said when you’ve wronged someone, the unicorn learnt.

“Why? It’s not your fault.”

Silence. The unicorn didn’t know what to say to that. It was true that it wasn't her fault that Toshiya and his father were imprisoned by an unreasonable Emperor but what else was she supposed to say?

“Do you regret it?” she asked at last, by way of an answer. “Not killing me.”

Toshiya snorted. “No. That’s the biggest mystery to me. To this day, I cannot bring myself to regret letting you go that night. It was the right thing to do. If I could do it all over again, I would still let you go. Every single time.”

More silence.

“Do you hate me?” asked Toshiya.

“Why would I hate you?” The unicorn tilted its head to the side, curious.

“For hunting your kind. For killing so many of your brethren.” Toshiya clenched his fists.

“You’re no longer that man who killed us. What have I to gain from hating a good man?”

There was another bitter laugh. “A good man? I was a prisoner. A convict. No one will have me. I can’t get a job anywhere. I’m worthless as a human being. There’s nothing more hateful than a man like me.” Finally, the man broke down in tears. “I should have been the one who died in prison. I was the one who let you go, not my father. Why did he have to die?”

The unicorn moved closer to the man, drawn to his grief like a moth to a flame. She rested a hand on his back, uncertain why she was doing it, only that she felt like she should.

“That’s not true. Everyone’s life and death had been determined from before one was born. What will be, will be.”

Toshiya pulled her into an embrace and continued crying.

Over the next few days, Toshiya kept coming back to the mountains to visit her. Some days, they spent the time together in silence, with Toshiya gathering firewood and the unicorn following in tow. Other days, they talked the day away. Toshiya spoke of his childhood growing up by a river; the unicorn told stories of her herd.

“What’s your name?” he asked one day.

The unicorn shook her head. She didn’t have one. Not in the language of the humans.

“Then I name you Hiroko, because you are the most gentle, forgiving soul I’ve ever had the honour of meeting,” said Toshiya.

Hiroko smiled. “Thank you.”

“Well then, what’s your plan for the future, Hiroko?” asked Toshiya.

Hiroko smiled again and shook her head, having not quite understood humans’ urgent need to constantly plan for the future. “I don’t really have one. It’s not our way. What are your plans?”

“I’ve found a hot spring not far from here. I’m planning on building a rest house of sorts there. Do you want to join me?” asked Toshiya.

Hiroko smiled. “Yes. Yes, I would love to.”

They named the onsen ‘Yuutopia Katsuki’. Business flourished. Within years, dozens of similar businesses emerged around them. People started referring to Toshiya and Hiroko as man and wife, much to Toshiya’s dismay and Hiroko's amusement. Toshiya kept insisting on Hiroko's innocence, though she never quite understood why it was such an important thing.

One day, Toshiya held her hand and said, “Hiroko, would you care to be the lady of this house?”

“But I am already the only lady in this house,” Hiroko teased. She had lived among humans long enough by then to know their ways.

Toshiya blushed a crimson red as he spluttered, “What I mean is, will you do me the honour of marrying me?”

Hiroko laughed. “I thought you would never ask.”

They got married in a small temple in Hasetsu. A year later, they had a daughter together, which they named Mari. Later, Mari would demand for a younger sibling to play with. Thus, they had another child together, a son this time, which they named Yuuri.

Mari grew up to be a hunter like her father, much to Toshiya’s disapproval.

“The world needs someone to safeguard it from dangerous beasts,” Mari had declared, hands tightening on her standard issue rifle.

Hiroko had held Toshiya back from berating their daughter, reasoning with him that her cause was just and if she found what she was doing to be wrong, she would know to call it quits. 

Yuuri, on the other hand, fell in love with skating. Later, she would learn that he really fell for a silver-haired Russian he saw on television. She mused over how strange it was that like called to like, because there was no mistaking Victor as anything but one of her kind, despite the layers of glamour he wore on the poster that Yuuri kept posted all around his room.

She knew something was amiss from the moment Mari came home with Yuuri in tow from Takeshi’s place, though she had respectfully allowed them their privacy, trusting them to share their troubles with her if they felt the need to. Her only regret was that her inaction nearly cost her Mari’s life. After that, there was no question about what she needed to do.

That night, for the first time since they were married, she had a shouting match with Toshiya. Toshiya relented in the end, as he always did whenever they had a disagreement. That night, he helped cut off her horn. It was the most painful thing she had had to endure in her entire life and after that, for the first time in her life, she experience all the inconveniences of the human body. Birds no longer sang to her in the mornings. She felt hunger and fatigue. Her knees and back ached from working the entire day. Gradually, even her skin started to loose its usual radiance. Nevertheless, she felt only joy in her heart whenever she received a phone call from Yuuri or watched him skate on television.

It was worth it, she thought, proud of her son as he made it to yet another international competition. Mari had resigned from being a hunter, claiming that her bones did not heal right and she no longer had the dexterity required of one, though Hiroko could tell from how fast Mari moved around while working in the onsen that it was a lie and she simply couldn’t bring herself to kill ‘beasts’ anymore now that her brother was one.

When Yuuri returned home after five years, Hiroko had been worried. She could tell that Yuuri was depressed despite keeping a cheerful upfront. She had been relieved when Victor came crashing into their tiny onsen with his mountain of belongings.

Victor had recognised her for what she was immediately, just as she did him.

“You don’t tell Yuuri,” was the first thing she told him.

He swore he wouldn’t and Hiroko trusted him. A unicorn never lied. Except she hadn’t quite accounted for how cunning the younger ones got. It turned out that Victor drew her oblivious’ son’s attention to the fact that the entire place glowed in the dark whenever he was around and got Yuuri to start relating it with his childhood memories of spending the night together with his mother. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together after that.

The couple moved to Russia for a few years to train for competition, though they spent the off season in Hasetsu.

It was worth it, Hiroko though, when during one of Yuuri’s competitions, Mari met a kindred spirit and together, they started a movement to fight for the rights of magical creatures. With time, more people took up the cause. The world started having less prejudice against mermaids, fairies, elves and shape-shifters. Laws were set into place to safeguard their rights. More funds were poured into researching ways to keep werewolves non-aggressive when Turned.

When Victor finally retired at thirty-two years old, he became Yuuri’s coach full time and they moved back to Hasetsu permanently.

Now, years later, when Hiroko was old and wrinkled and reduced to ambulating with a wheelchair, she would smile as she squinted through eyes clouded with cataracts, watching the werewolf cuddle with the unicorn under the silver moon out in the open in the field of pink carnations, no longer needing to hide their true identities for fear of persecution.

It was definitely worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> For those who didn't get the reference, Hiroko's name is kanji is "寛子". [寛](http://jisho.org/search/%E5%AF%9B%20) means gentle, tolerant, magnanimous whereas "子" means child.
> 
> When I first read the prompts, what I had in mind was really unicorn!Victor and werewolf!Yuuri celebrating their first year anniversary together. Then, I read that [pink carnations were the symbol of a mother's undying love](https://www.teleflora.com/meaning-of-flowers/carnation) and this story sort of just happened. I really intended it to be a 1000 word drabble. IDK how this monster appeared.
> 
> I hope the entire story made sense to you. I think it's really off putting if I start rambling in the author's note about every last detail of my story.   
> Thank you so much for reading.


End file.
